Free Flick of the Day: Lone Wolf McQuade

Chuck Norris may be famous for spending a few years playing Walker, Texas Ranger on CBS, but that wasn't his first, or best, role as one of the Lone Star State's revered lawmen. No, Norris played a Texas Ranger years earlier, way back in 1983, when he starred in Lone Wolf McQuade -- one of the venerable action stars' best films.

McQuade was an interesting evolutionary moment in Norris' career -- the film where he went from a clean-cut good guy to the beard-sporting badass he's been ever since. You know all those stupid Chuck Norris jokes the Internet loves so much? Lone Wolf McQuade is the literal embodiment of every one of them. Yet, when you get right down to it, this is a genuinely good action film. Norris plays Texas Ranger J.J. McQuade, a lone wolf cop out to avenge his partner's death and stop a gun smuggler (David Carradine). When he's not busy with that, he's dealing with his rookie partner, making sexytime with Carradine's woman (Barbara Carrera), or kicking someone in the face. Life for McQuade is pretty good.